Good grief - I've been gone a long time!

 It's been seven years since I posted to this blog and honestly, I didn't even remember I had it until I was going through my pbase photo galleries and came across a link!

Focused these days on supporting the Henderson County Democratic Party and running their two Facebook pages.  Here's one:  https://www.facebook.com/HendersonCountyDems

Also, deeply involved with my photography, these days photographing mostly nature subjects around my house. I like to keep a camera nearby for capturing our ever-roving and pesky wild turkeys.  This one got my attention by pecking on our front door sidelight:

Trying new recipes seems to be a weekly endeavor since I find cooking to be therapeutic in these scary times.  Latest very successful endeavor was an adaptation of Emeril Lagasse's Eggplant Napoleon (since I was using Asian eggplants from my garden).  Here's my version:

Well...I just check a preview and Blogger is still working!  Hope to post more often, now!

Just because I had to use the Asian Eggplant I've Been Growing....

I put together this Asian Fusion Garlic Eggplant, Chicken, Red Pepper and Onion Stir Fry this evening and it was so delicious that I wanted to share it with you.  I can't give you specific amounts for everything because I invented as I went along.  If you've ever done stir frying or a bit of Asian cooking, you will be able to fill in the blanks.  Read the recipe first since several things are going on at the same time and you can be confused about what to do when!

Here are the ingredients for four smallish servings:
1/2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into largish bite-sized pieces
1 lb. long thin Asian Eggplant cut in bite size pieces, skin on.
1/2 large Vidalia onion cut into bite size pieces
two red peppers or one very large one (as I had) cut in bite sized pieces
lots of fresh garlic, put through garlic press
Oil for frying (very little - you periodically add chicken broth to keep the bottom of the pan from scorching)

Liquids:
Bulgogi Marinade from Debra Samuels' The Korean Table (minus scallions)
Swanson's canned chicken broth
few shakes of  Oyster Sauce
few shakes of Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
1 tbsp. Cornstarch thinned with a couple of tablespoons of cold water

Place chicken in container you can securely cover and turn over to make sure marinade coats well.  Pour bulgogi marinade (maybe 1/3 cup) over the chicken and grate fresh ginger on it.  Stir to combine with the chicken and  cover container.  It doesn't have to marinate very long - maybe 5-10 minutes.  Turn over and shake periodically while eggplant and pepper are in the microwave.

Put a generous tablespoon of oil in a wok of heavy skillet over high heat and fry chicken till it's no longer pink and begins to feel slightly firm.  Don't overcook it!  Remove and set aside when done. * You can be nuking the eggplant and pepper while you fry the chicken and then the onion.

*The eggplant and pepper pieces are placed on a large platter in the microwave and nuked on high for about 7 minutes until they soften.  Precooking them means you can use way less oil to stir fry them.

While eggplant and pepper are nuking, put a couple of tablespoons of oil in the same messy wok or skillet that you just took the chicken out of.   Add onion pieces and stir fry for a couple of minutes and turn off heat.  Add the nuked eggplant pepper pieces  when they're ready. Also add some garlic.  Eggplant will quickly soak up oil.  This is when you have to add chicken broth to keep things moving and to keep the bottom of the pan from scorching. (You don't want the veggies to swim in broth - you just don't want them to scorch.)  Leftover broth can be stored in fridge for several days for later use.

When veggies are stir-fried (over high heat) to your liking (not too much) add the pre-cooked chicken pieces and stir to combine.  Add dashes of oyster sauce and Thai sweet chili sauce, plus a bit more chicken broth, heat stir well and add cornstarch dissolved in water to thicken as you stir.

Serve over rice.

A Little Family Fun over Memorial Day Weekend

During a visit to the outlet shops in Atlantic City, New Jersey

They loved all the "whee-ing" they got.

Non-Laminated Breakfast Potatoes

I'm not much of a breakfast food eater but I do love well-done hash browns with onions in them. Through the years I've tried various methods to make them look and taste as good as some we've had in restaurants, but every attempt has been a failure until this morning, when a web search took me to Monica's blog:

I adapted her method for my own requirements (had to have onions in them), using extra virgin olive oil, russet potatoes, and Vidalia onion, seasoned at the end with salt, garlic powder and dried dill weed. Almost forget to say that after frying I drained the potatoes on a paper towel and patted the tops as well.  Here is my result:

Oh...and as far as the "non-laminated" goes, these were the first ever breakfast potatoes I made that didn't have to be sand-blasted off the bottom of the skillet.  Secrets were, I think, lots of oil to coat the bottom of the pan, despite it being so-called non-stick, and cutting the potato into very small cubes and then drying them off with paper towels before frying.  They have to be left in place a few minutes before you start tossing them to get all sides crisp, each time you toss letting that arrangement cook (on medium high heat) for a couple of minutes.

The Diet isn't Working!

I've had Beegie on Purina Overweight Maintenance food since June.

All kidding aside, she's lost three pounds and I'm very proud of her! (Now if I could only remember to take Louie's bowl away when I let her out of her eating quarters.............)

Clarence is a talented guy

We met Clarence at a community breakfast and learned he had just started recording his singing.  He was such a fascinating guy that I asked if I could photograph him at home.

Before the snow came today Bill and I went to visit him and were enthusiastically greeted.

Listen to him here

My Official Taste Tester

He's not as food adventurous as I am, so if he likes it I know it's good.

A couple of days ago we ate at the Korean Barbeque restaurant in Greenville, South Carolina, and especially enjoyed the dried squid appetizer served in the "banchan" assorted little dishes of tasty, usually fiery hot, "go-withs" that are served with Korean dinners.

I searched the web and found a great blog which unfortunately hasn't been updated since 2007, but the recipes are good.  You should check it out:  My Korean Kitchen

Here's my DH taste-testing the dish which just came out of the wok.  I will refrigerate it and serve only a few morsels at a time with a meal.  EXCELLENT!

First visit this year!

Northern Flicker waiting for a pileated woodpecker to leave the cedar log feeder.


(I'm waiting for a crop camera similar to the Canon 5D Mark II that has excellent high  ISO performance, but has better and faster low light focusing abilities.  The new 7D has reportedly better focusing, but doesn't fill my high ISO performance expectations.)  Update:  I've found it!  The 7D really does have VASTLY improved focus and I love it.  Check out My PBase 7D gallery.

Louie has a problem - It doesn't tickle my fancy

On Monday, I took Louie for a cardiac ultrasound because his formerly nightly coughing incidents have worsened and have been occurring several times throughout the day and night. He was very stoic when he was being shaved before the procedure:

Previous to the ultrasound he was diagnosed with asthma and put on Theophylline to open up the bronchioles in his lungs to ease his breathing.  It seemed to help, but  a side effect of that medication made him a bit hyperactive so I stopped it. Of course something had to be done about the coughing so my vet suggested the cardiac ultrasound to find out what was going on with his heart. The test revealed "moderate" thickening of the heart walls.  It was explained to me that the coughing may be caused by the thickening pressing against his trachea.

Other than the coughing he shows no other heart defect symptoms so he won't be given any heavy duty medication. I've gone back to the Theophylline which I thought might help, but last night he had a really bad coughing spell. It is sad watching and listening to him fight for breath at these times.

Another Pic with "PhotoFunia"

What a fun place:  Photofunia

Fun place to play with Portraits

Photofunia
Has all sorts of templates to which you upload your photos and face detection inserts them into the artwork.  I found it timed out a lot before the upload was finished.  Switched to Internet Explorer from Firefox and it seemed to work better:

Simple presents are often the best...

...and these were a hit with the twins.  (Picture from Peter)

Had to laugh...

...when I saw the following picture in my son's blog:

It immediately brought to mind this image of her father, put together for his digital photo frame:

Here's a current video clip of the grand-twins

Videoed by their dad with his Fuji F40fd:

New Woodpecker for Me

Always exciting when I see a new bird at a feeder on my deck.  This was shot through my sliding door. It's a yellow-bellied sapsucker!

Trying to get started!

If my son can do this, I can....what can be so hard about it?  Well...I've had several false starts, but I'm going to persist.

A couple of weeks ago we went up north for a new family tradition:  "Thanksmas", a celebration designed to bypass typical holiday traffic.

High points of our visit were a delicious dinner prepared by daughter Sunny...

 and spending time with our grand-twins whom we call our "Unguided Missiles"...

They enjoyed their holiday outfits...

We also enjoyed a visit to the Camden, NJ Aquarium where we got up close and personal with a couple of amusing hippos, whose friendliness belied their reputation as very dangerous animals...doesn't this one look harmless?

Well...that wasn't so hard...I think I'll embed a short video just to prove I can do it:  Here's one shot by my son - his daughter's first Dada's